The Stones, k.d. lang, AND...

As I explained here, I'm in a desperate and probably futile quest to listen to every song in my iTunes at least once during 2014. (Update: still 3,607 tracks left. I have 17 days left. And that doesn't even count Christmas music, which I don't play the rest of the year anyway.) At one point yesterday, I heard the Rolling Stones' "Anybody Seen My Baby?" from 1997, and I heard something familiar in the chorus (skip to 1:23):



You're probably thinking of "Constant Craving" by k.d. lang (skip to 0:44).



You may recall that, to avoid possible lawsuits, lang and Ben Mink, the writers of "Constant Craving," were given songwriters' credit on the Stones song. And yes, I did think of it. Eventually. But another song popped into my head first:



Not exact, but close enough for me. (Wonder if the writers of this song thought about suing k.d.lang?) Just a little more evidence that it's very hard, if not impossible, to create a completely brand new song. Everything borrows something that came before it, even if only slightly.

Comparison: ESPN vs. NFL

ESPN says Stephen A. Smith will not appear for a week on their TV show "First Take" or his radio show because of comments he made that implied some women provoke domestic violence. The comments were in the wake of the NFL suspending Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice for two games for beating up his fiancee (now his wife).

So...knock out your woman and drag her unconscious body out of a hotel elevator? Miss two games.
Talk about it in a stupid manner? Miss ten "games."

I'm so glad the NFL and Roger Goodell have educated us on the correct levels of punishment for dastardly acts.





(These two clips should actually be connected into one, as they were part of the same scene. This won't be a problem in a few months.)

My Not-So-Current Jams

I haven't bought many new albums lately. (Aside: is there a better word than "album" to use, seeing as how I'm pretty much all digital, unless there's an exceptional sale?) But I had an iTunes gift card so I've been using it to pick up some old songs...but first, some that aren't so new. (Links are to YouTube so you can listen along with me.)

Are You What You Want To Be? - Foster The People
Coming of Age - Foster The People
Best Friend - Foster The People: these three are from their new album...there's that word again...which, while I like, is much more weighted down in spirit than their previous release. Also, my mp3s of the album may or may not have been...created in an interesting fashion. I'll say no more.
La La La - Naughty Boy feat. Sam Smith: I listened to Sam's debut album online. Liked it, didn't love it. I prefer this and the song "Latch" which he did with Disclosure (on an album that I need to acquire, if anyone wants to help me out via PayPal.)
Meteorite - Mariah Carey: this needs to be released in an extended mix...not really remixed, just a longer version.
Sing - Ed Sheeran: I heard this was produced by Pharrell and I was like "Whaaat?" But it works.
I Need a Dollar - Aloe Blacc: story of my life right now...and this was out before his current run of success, including his appearance at the Philly 4th of July Jam on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

As for the older tracks...

Slow Down - Loose Ends: a follow-up to their classic "Hangin' on a String (Contemplating)."
He's a Saint, He's a Sinner (Extended Version) - Miquel Brown: from the woman who brought us "So Many Men, So Little Time" -- actually, this is from the same album, which I actually did purchase. Classic early-1980s hi-NRG club music. Gay, gay, gay. Video is not of the extended version, by the way.
Living For the City - Stevie Wonder: not the truncated radio version but the full-length version, which I'd never heard before.
Come Into My Life (Radio Mix) - Joyce Sims
Lifetime Love (Hard Club) - Joyce Sims: She pretty much had three or four songs that had some level of success. I now own the three that I know.
Dance With You - Carrie Lucas: Disco!!! From 1979!!! I was 17!!!
Questionnaire (Full Vocal Mix) - Chaz Jankel: this takes me back to before I moved into my own place for the first time. When we first got HBO -- long before they began their run of amazing TV series -- they used to play music videos between movies, and this was one of them.
Say I'm Your Number One - Princess: I forgot about this until I watched a YouTube video from British TV about the Stock-Aitken-Waterman production team. This was one of their hits. I was surprised because it's rather different from this.
Don’t Disturb This Groove - The System: I feel like I should have something more to say about this, but I don't. It's just a song I liked back in the day.

Too Long For Twitter: Nashville Teens

Hi. Remember me? I hope so. I also hope to actually blog more often, but I've said that before. Anyway, I started to tweet this but I can't fit it into 140 characters, so...

Ever hear a song and think it's great, find out the artist and song title and put it on a list of songs you want to download, and then don't do so for quite some time and then, after a long time passes, you win 25 free downloads from a Coke Zero promotion and start downloading songs from that list, see the song and wonder what the hell this is, so you listen to it and you don't really care for it much and wonder why you put it on the list to begin with, and then you check Wikipedia and find that it was featured over the closing credits of a "Mad Men" episode in 2010?

Presenting "Tobacco Road" by Nashville Teens...

A Tale Of Two Justins

Dear Justin Bieber,

It's quite simple: if you don't like being compared to Justin Timberlake...



...why would you sing a Timberlake song in concert?



Please go away,
Sincerely,

Joe in Philly

P.S. Sorry to hear about your recent breakup with Selena Gomez. If you need to talk, I know a guy who'd love to listen.

P.P.S. It's not me. Good grief, no.

History For Music Lovers

So I was looking at my Gmail account -- which I set up early this year but never actually use, at least not yet. And I found a few emails in it, mostly from YouTube comments. One of them was interesting, though. Remember when I wrote about the Bastille Day celebration at Eastern State? If not, refresh your memory. The first video, featuring the Lady Gaga "Bad Romance" parody, is the one that got the comment. It seems that the parody was originally created by an outfit called History for Music Lovers, and they've got a whole slew of these. Here's their full-length version of the "Bad Romance" revamp, "The French Revolution."



Still think this guy's adorable, by the way. Someone hook me up, please?

Pete Happy

In September my friend Kurt got another chance to sing the national anthem before the Camden Riversharks again. (Video below.) And guess who also showed up?

None other than Pedro Feliz (above, left). He's spent most of the last two seasons with the Riversharks. He'll be 38 in April. I don't know how long he's going to keep playing but, needless to say, he'll always be fondly remembered for driving in the game-winning run the night the Phillies won the 2008 World Series.

Money's Too Tight (To Mention)

If you know music of the 1980s then you know this song by Simply Red, although a couple of things seem to have slipped my memory. First, I didn't really remember the direct jabs at Ronald and Nancy Reagan near the end of the song. In addition, according to Wikipedia this was the band's first single, released in 1985, with their first big smash "Holding Back The Years" not coming out until 1986. Somehow I had them reversed in my mind.

At any rate I think some artist should cover it now, updating the lyrics to refer to Mitt Romney and some other GOP frauds instead of the Reagans.

Bastille Day Festival 2012

Another bunch of pictures for you to peruse. These are from the annual Bastille Day Festival held at Eastern State Penitentiary. For you out-of-towners, it's not actually operating as a prison now. It's a tourist attraction. Al Capone was once locked up there. Every Halloween they operate a popular haunted house-style tour. And every July there's Bastille Day. This was the first time I checked out the festival and it was apparently revised some this year, so I can't compare it to other years, but it's fun. Essentially, it's a show featuring comedy, song and dance performed by the Bearded Ladies Cabaret, telling the story of the French Revolution (taking many liberties with said story, naturally).

The star of the show was Edith Piaf (who actually lived in the 20th century; I told you, they took liberties with the story). I got there in time to see a pre-show rehearsal, and I kind of developed a little crush on this guy. It's the weirdest thing. Men in heels usually don't do it for me.

I took lots of pictures, which are located here. I also took some video, which is after the jump...

May 19, 2012: My Festival Fest

On a warm late-spring Saturday afternoon I took in three different festivals in the city. I took many pictures and some video (using my tablet's camcorder)!

I started out at the Trenton Avenue Arts Festival , which has been held for the last seven years in Kensington (in a spot where, I'm guessing, it borders Fishtown). Its attractions are basically as advertised: arts and crafts (such as "Billy Maze," pictured),  food, vendors, etc. However, it also featured the 6th Annual Kensington Kinetic Sculpture Derby. (Arts festival and derby photos are here.)

The what?


Basically, it's like this: a kinetic sculpture is a vehicle that's powered by humans (such as a bike) but also has some special artistic additions, making them look like parade floats or something. What they do is ride these things along a stretch of the street. There's no race, but there is one element to challenge them: a mud pit. They have to design their kinetic sculpture so that they can get it through the mud. Here's a sample:



Here's a close-up picture of the mud pit...

It's really entertaining. Next year I want to go again, but get a seat nearer to the mud.

Then I headed for Franklin Square for

Sugar Daddy's Little Girl

This is the current Klondike "5 Seconds to Glory" ad featuring the guy who jumps into the "dreaded dance circle" to get his Klondike bar. I picked up on the "sugar daddy's little girl" line in the song and it's become a little bit of an obsession every time the commercial came on...



I thought this song was just some humorous thing for the ad -- it's not. It's a whole song!

, so

50; No Softball

So here's a magazine cover from fifty years ago, on the day I was born...

Or if you're a little less highbrow, like me...

50. Yikes. So far it isn't really any different from my 40s. Except I can join the AARP and start benefiting from my advanced age. (And dammit, why can't I find a video of this Grampa Simpson clip?)

Anyway, if you've ever checked out my Twitter profile page you've seen what I wrote for a bio, at least since I began my job in October: "I may have a job now but I will still spend way too much time online, on Twitter, Facebook, etc. Oh, and blog. And play softball..." But I've made a change. It now ends with "...but not this year." The softball league's season begins this weekend, weather permitting. However, this year I'm not playing. I had been planning to, but there was a problem with my team's practice schedule that led to my not making it to practice. (We talking about practice! Not a game, not a game, not a game -- we talking about practice!) I won't go into the gory details; suffice it to say there was an exchange of negative emails and, had I decided to play, I probably would have preferred finding a new team.

But I got to thinking (which is always dangerous). If I did play I wouldn't be as effective pitching as I've been in the past. One of the things that spurred me to rejoin the league in 2008, after a 20-year hiatus, was the fact that I had been dieting and lost a lot of weight (eventually the total loss reached 50 pounds), so I felt more able to do things without overtiring. Unfortunately, since then, slowly but surely I've been gaining it back. And if anything, with the stress from my job schedule and commute to and from work, I've probably eaten worse over the last 6 months.

The Trail Of Hair

Oddly enough, this is the second time I've seen a scene like this, and in the same place: Frankford Terminal. My assumption is two teenage girls got into a fight and began pulling at each other's hair/weaves. For once I'd like to get there as the fight begins, rather than see the sorry aftermath:



LOVE the Dunkin Donuts worker who has to clean up the mess outside their store.

By the way, like my musical embellishment? I edited it myself!

Foster The People!

It seems that Foster The People is playing the Mann Center in June. I think I need to see the concert. Who's going with me?

If you checked out my "2011 in music" post you know that their album "Torches" was one of just four 2011 albums I own. And I wasn't planning on buying it, even though I had heard and liked "Pumped Up Kicks." Then one of the TMZ people I follow on Twitter posted a link to the song "Houdini" on his Tumblr page. (By the way, does anyone think I really need a Tumblr page of my own?) Once I heard it, I knew I was buying the album. And although it's really, really, really early in the year, every track is at the top of my most-played in Tunes since I reset the count.

"Houdini" is currently, and surprisingly, at number two. Here's their performance from the "Live on Letterman" concert:



If you prefer, their "Saturday Night Live" rendition...with special guest Kenny G????



But which song is at number one? That would be "Call It What You Want." Here's the music video:

Philadelphia Revolution Hockey?

I was about to get out of a bus near my house after I ran some errands today, and saw another bus pulling to the corner. When I saw what the bus said, I was intrigued, so when I exited my bus, I shot some video.



Seeing as how I'm not enthused about the Flyers right now, thanks to their lying (definitely) bigot (possibly) Wayne Simmonds, this intrigued me. I found their website -- it's a bit subpar, but I've been able to piece together that the Philadelphia Revolution is a junior hockey organization, with teams in three different leagues. They play their home games at a rink in Warwick Township. In fact, one team had a game there tonight, with a 5:40 pm scheduled start.

I don't know why their bus was around the corner from my house at 4:15, less than 90 minutes before game time. I think there's a chance the driver was lost, or thought he was lost. The bus was headed north on Frankford Ave. to Grant Ave., made a right on to Grant and (as I took my video) parked along the road for about two minutes before resuming the trip. But based on Google's directions from there to the rink, they were headed in the wrong direction when the bus turned onto Grant.

I wish them well. Definitely more than the Flyers right now. But they need to spell the word "sponsor" correctly.

Rant On "It Gets Better" (Plus The Phils' Video)

First, at long last here is the Phillies' "It Gets Better" message featuring Chase Utley, Roy Halladay, Hunter Pence, John Mayberry, Jr. and Michael Stutes...



Regarding "It Gets Better," there's been a discussion of its merits on the Outsports Jock Talk Blog in response to a post about a story from Canada. A local paper is doing a series on area gay athletes, and they started with a teenage hockey player who isn't out of the closet and is fearful of people finding out he's gay. The comments have turned into a debate on whether or not the "It Gets Better" project is actually worthwhile.

I am sick of this debate.

Wait. Let me re-state this for emphasis:

I AM SICK OF THIS DEBATE!

Quick Review: Bad Teacher

I was sort of looking forward to "Bad Teacher," starring Cameron Diaz in the title role. It begins on the last day of the previous school year, when Diaz's Elizabeth Halsey -- foulmouthed, drinking, drug-using teacher that she is -- is leaving her job because she's getting married to her wealthy boyfriend. His mother helps put a stop to it, so Elizabeth is back in school in September, and so is a new substitute, Scott, (Justin Timberlake) who is earnest and squeaky clean. In the same way she rebuffs the gym teacher's (Jason Segel) interest, Elizabeth isn't interested in Scott, until she notices his expensive watch and learns his family owns the company. Elizabeth is interested. Very interested. (Now I ain't saying she a gold digger, but...okay, Kanye, take it from here.) There are lots of individual funny lines and scenes, and Elizabeth's turn from showing movies all day to taskmaster (taskmistress?) -- when she learns of a cash prize awarded to the teacher whose students score highest in the state's standardized testing -- is played for comedy and not serious, personal-improvement inspiration. It falls short of "Bridesmaids" in the R-rated comedy department, but it's not bad. My grade: B.

My Week In Culture

Before we get to my main topic, I just noticed...well, actually, I noticed it yesterday...that my last post was number 777. I do like the number 7, as you can guess from various email/screen names of mine. I'd like it to live up to its reputation and actually be lucky, though.

So this week I ventured away from my usual movies/sports/TV show morass. Twice. But hey, I have a good excuse: I was supporting my friends.

First up was a visit to the Shubin Theater, a very intimate -- okay, small: it seats just over 40 people -- venue around the corner from 4th and South Streets, for "All in the Timing" by David Ives. It's the inaugural production of the new WAG Theater Company, and the company's founder Brian Sell is on my softball team, so a bunch of us took in the show. "All in the Timing" is actually six short plays, very loosely connected by a theme of communication (and miscommunication) and its effect on the lives of people -- and, in one play, chimpanzees. (No actual chimps were harmed in this production.) One or two of the six plays were, for me, a little off-target, but overall the show was quite witty and at times hilarious.The actors (including Brian, who played one of the chimps) did very well. And the good news is, you can still see it, with three more shows June 23, 24 and 25. (Read more about the show and the company here and here.)

Then, tonight, it was time for "Mmm Bop: Best of the Boy Bands," the season-ending concert by the Philadelphia Gay Men's Chorus, at the Temple Performing Arts Center (formerly called the Baptist Temple) on the Temple campus. The entire show consisted of medleys of songs made famous by "boy bands." They use that term a little loosely, in my opinion, but it's technically accurate. Every song was by a duo or group consisting of males only. So while there was

This Town Needs An Enema

I'm just saying...



I love that line from Tim Burton's "Batman," and I was listening to my summer playlist and "Batdance" came on, so here you go.

Actually, I think the whole damn nation needs that enema. The budget disasters at the local, state and federal level continue to wreak havoc on people's lives because of politics, as the rich and powerful continue to become more rich and more powerful at the expense of the working class, the poor, the elderly, etc., and people just allow it to happen. More time is spent on sideshows -- Sarah Palin and Donald Trump and Anthony Weiner -- than on the real issues. And by the way, Anthony Weiner should resign from Congress, not because he did anything illegal or wrong, just for being so utterly STUPID and playing right into the right wing's hands.

On the other hand, he'd probably get a show on CNN or MSNBC, which is all we need. So maybe he should stay in Congress after all.

Last week, I made a last-minute decision to go chasing after Sarah Palin when she stopped by Independence Hall and visited the Liberty Bell on her stupid little bus tour, but she was already gone by the time I got there. I just wanted to boo her the way she was booed when she dropped the puck for the ceremonial faceoff before the Flyers game back in 2008. Alas, I missed my chance. I did visit the Liberty Bell, though.

The renovations of Independence Hall are continuing, as you can see in this picture. One thing I wasn't aware of is how much the bell used to travel around the country. So, unlike Sarah, I actually learned something on my visit.

The Soul And The Riversharks

A couple of things from a week or so ago that I didn't get around to posting previously...

A week ago Thursday, the 1600 and 1700 blocks of Market Street in Center City were closed to traffic so that the Philadelphia Soul, the Arena Football League team once owned by Jon Bon Jovi, could hold an outdoor practice. Here's a video with a portion of the practice. The speaker is head coach Mike Hohensee. Some photos follow (click on the photos to see full-size versions).

Former mayor and former PA governor Ed Rendell

This wasn't the most intense practice. It was more a publicity stunt to sell tickets. In 2008, the last year of the Soul's existence before the league temporarily shut down, they sold out half of their games and averaged over 16,000 per game. Whether it's due to the two years without a team or the economy or other factors, but their home opener this year drew just 12,000 or so, and attendance dropped to 8,000 for home game 2 and 7,500 for their most recent game on Friday.